Officially, his entourage is formal: "Anne Hidalgo is not in the countryside". And what does it matter if its main rival (LR), Rachida Dati, relaunches hostilities. The battle of Paris? What a battle ... If the mayor (PS) of Paris is engaged on a front, it is that of "the health crisis". In one of the departments hardest hit by the virus, there can be no other priorities, insists the Hôtel-de-Ville.
Even before the country declares itself "at war" against the coronavirus, the mayor (PS) of the capital rose to the front line. Maneuvering at the end of February, she runs a crisis cell every day and claims to do everything in her power to protect Parisians. Her media presence intensified in early April, when she sent her “10 proposals” for deconfinement by mail to the head of government.
Before chaining the announcements: two million free masks for Parisians, 100 million euros in aid for businesses, 50 km of new lanes dedicated to bicycles, including the emblematic rue de Rivoli…
VIDEO. Hidalgo says temporary bike paths could "deter motorists"
In the field, she is working on her image as a unifier with actors associated with crisis management, such as the AP-HP with whom she is setting up the Covisan device for taking care of sick patients in hotel rooms. And when she signed the rostrum of the mayors of Ile-de-France who asked the State to postpone the start of the school year in September, it was "out of solidarity" with her colleagues who knew the reality of everyday life.
She prefers to sweep away attacks
Even his opponent Florence Berthout hails his ability to play the sacred union, beyond the divisions: “The executive has shown solidarity and accepted decentralization at the level of the arrondissements. Objectively, these are not areas where Anne Hidalgo has always excelled, ”recognizes the mayor (DVD) of the 5th arrondissement.
What interest would the mayor of Paris have in entering the municipal ring? Arriving at the head with the first turn of the municipal ones, with 29.3% of the votes, Anne Hidalgo is well left to preserve the Town hall, if an agreement is reached with the environmentalists. All the more so since Agnes Buzyn, her rival LREM, disappeared from the local landscape the day after the first round, after having qualified the organization of the poll as a "masquerade".
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So the attacks, Hidalgo prefers to sweep them away. Rachida Dati accuses her of not disinfecting the streets? She awaits the decision of the High Council of Public Health, which gives her reason. Delay in the delivery of the masks, which extends until June 8? It insists on their “local manufacture” by companies of the solidarity economy.
"Hidalgo played its part well by communicating better than the government"
In return, it shoots a few arrows against the government: by taking a stand very early for the "massive generalization of masks and screening tests", it can only deplore the national stewardship which does not follow. Or when it calls for the reopening of parks and gardens, its “green” marker. She quietly unrolls her program ... without seeming to.
A well-established strategy according to political communication specialist Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet: “Anne Hidalgo has played her part well by communicating better than the government and by placing herself in a role of protecting Parisians. It is a strategy for the empowerment of local elected officials that is also observed among the mayors of Nice or Cannes. It's pretty clever. "
And too bad if proposals make pschitt like the "certificate of immunity" which was to be used as a basis for deconfinement. Other measures are being implemented, as evidenced by the crisis plan of 200 million euros which will be debated on Monday at the Paris Council. This is not the time for battle… Even if the elected official seems to be sounding the charge by signing in the JDD this Sunday a platform with 35 mayors calling for the maintenance of a second round at the end of June.